The present embodiments relate to ultrasound transducers. In particular, the present embodiments relate to front-end operation of an ultrasound system.
On the front end of ultrasound systems, a transmit beamformer generates high voltage transmit waveforms and transmits the transmit waveforms to a transducer. Transmit waveforms are provided for different elements of the transducer. For receive operation, the transducer transmits low voltage signals to a receive beamformer. The transmit and receive beamformer channels are typically connected to the elements of the transducer with coaxial cables. The coaxial cables shield the transmit and receive waveforms from crosstalk and other interference.
Ultrasound transducers may be positioned in cardiac catheters. Due to tight space inside the catheter body and the large number elements of the transducer, fully shielded coax cables may not be used to connect the beamformer channels to the elements. Non-coaxial signal wires, such as traces on flex circuit material, are used, resulting in higher level inter-channel cross-talk and higher susceptibility to external noise interference. As a result, images with this catheter construction exhibit centerline noise artifacts, degrading image quality at times, especially for 3D images.